Articles

[hockeygod]

Hockey Canada unveils team for world junior hockey championship

DONNA SPENCER, The Canadian Press, Dec. 14, 2011

The 22 players tasked with re-claiming the gold medal for Canada at the world junior hockey championships were unveiled Wednesday.

Named to the team were goaltenders Mark Visentin and Scott Wedgewood, with Nathan Beaulieu, Brandon Gormley, Jamie Oleksiak, Dougie Hamilton, Scott Harrington, Ryan Murray and Mark Pysyk all on defence.

Canada's goalies Scott Wedgewood, left, and Tyler Bunz, right, stretch during Canada's annual selection camp in preparation for the upcoming IIHF World Junior Championships in Calgary, Alta., on Sunday, Dec. 11, 2011.
Video
Coach looks for versatility with junior roster

Up front, Freddie Hamilton, Quinton Howden, Jonathan Huberdeau, Tanner Pearson, Mark Scheifele, Devante Smith-Pelly, Mark Stone, Ryan Strome, Michael Bournival, Brett Connolly, Brendan Gallagher, Boone Jenner and Jaden Schwartz will play for Canada.

Thirteen players were released from the team Wednesday morning.

Edmonton and Calgary will host this year's world event. Canada opens the tournament Dec. 26 in Edmonton. After a run of five straight gold, Canada has taken silver the last two years.

Canada will play exhibition games in Calgary, Red Deer, Alta., and Edmonton next week.

Freddie and Dougie Hamilton will be the first brothers to play for the Canadian team since Randy and Mike Moller 30 years ago. Freddie is 19 and Dougie is 18.

The Hamilton brothers play for the Ontario Hockey League's Niagara IceDogs, who are well-represented on the team. In addition to the siblings, Strome and Visentin were the other IceDogs selected.

Canada boasts two NHL forwards in Smith-Pelly of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks and Connolly of the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Saint John Sea Dogs winger Huberdeau and Howden of the Moose Jaw Warriors also made the team despite questionable health. Huberdeau has yet to skate since breaking a bone in his right foot Nov. 7.

Howden took a hard check from Connolly in the second intra-squad game of camp and has an “upper-body injury.”

Both are expected to be important players for Canada. Huberdeau was the Memorial Cup MVP. Howden is one of four returning players from the team that won silver in Buffalo, N.Y., last January. Connolly, Schwartz and Visentin are the other three.

Hockey Canada can recall a released player in the event of an injury, but it's against policy to keep extra players after the team is named.

The selected players and staff are heading to Banff, Alta., later this week for practices and team building.

The players released were goaltenders Louis Dominigue and Tyler Bunz, defencemen Cody Ceci, Alex Petrovic, Ryan Murphy and Joe Morrow as well as forwards Brett Bulmer, Phil Di Guiseppe, Tyler Toffoli, Christian Thomas, Ty Rattie, Brad Ross and Phillip Danault.

Danault of the Victoria Tigres was the most surprising as he'd scored twice in an exhibition game against university players the previous night.

“I'm cut but I respect their decision,” said Danault, who at 18 will have another chance next year. “If they win the gold medal, I'll respect it more for sure.”

The defence was particularly deep at camp with half of the 14 blue-liners invited first-round draft picks of NHL teams.

Murphy of the Kitchener Rangers was drafted 12th overall by Carolina this year, but the 18-year-old was released by Canada. He's an offensive defenceman and tried to show he could play defence too.

“I kind of look back at it and wish that I was playing like myself,” Murphy said. “Maybe I didn't have to change my game, maybe I just have to be aware of other aspects of my game.”

“It's pretty difficult,” Murphy said. “Getting woken up at 6 a.m. is not the easiest thing and knowing it's you and not your roommate is also not an easy thing. I'll be back next year maybe and hopefully make the team then.”

Murray of the Everett Silvertips isn't draft eligible until next year, but he was named to the Canadian squad.

Petrovic is an Edmonton native and was disappointed to hear his phone ring early in the morning, because it meant he was summoned to meet with the coaches and hear the bad news.

“I was kind of in a deep sleep,” Petrovic said. “I had a little dream of actually waking up and making the team, but I got the call. Obviously, it's a heartbreak.”

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

L.A. story for Sutter? Close to taking job with Kings

ERIC FRANCIS, QMI Agency, Dec 14 2011

CALGARY – Darryl Sutter is a simple “yes” away from returning to the NHL as coach of the Los Angeles Kings.

A source close to the situation confirmed the former Calgary Flames coach and GM has been asked by Kings GM Dean Lombardi if he’ll take over from interim coach John Stevens.

If he answers affirmatively, it would be the first thing anyone in the hockey world has heard from Sutter in almost a calendar year, which makes his return all the more surprising.

Since being fired as GM of the Flames last Christmas the 53-year-old executive went underground, disappearing from the game that once dominated his life.

Put out to pasture with a big severance cheque and a trail of nasty editorials blaming him for the sizeable hole he’d left the franchise in, Sutter retreated to his family’s homestead in Viking, Alta., to resume farming.

Refusing to answer any of the hundreds of phone calls from lowly media types, Sutter opted not to respond publicly to the ousting and hasn’t been quoted ever since.

Many figured his NHL career was over.

Holding a grudge the size of a hay bale, he still hasn’t spoken to his brother Brent who remained on as head coach in Calgary. It speaks to the dysfunctional way in which Sutter ran the Flames as GM.

He hasn’t been spotted in any rinks around the NHL nor has he been connected to any of the previous coaching vacancies this year.

Then along came his fiercely loyal pal, Lombardi, who desperately needs someone to light a fire under his underachieving team.

Lighting fires is what Darryl Sutter does best.

While the Flames will spend years putting out some of the blazes he lit as a GM, the Flames owe much of their financial resurrection to his coaching abilities.

That must be said.

He turned this franchise around faster than anyone ever fathomed was possible, pushing a rag-tag bunch of muckers to within one game of the Stanley Cup final in 2004.

His record in San Jose, where Lombardi last hired Sutter, saw the team improve all five years under his guidance, and he has a 107-73-26 record as coach here.

In Calgary, his act as a miserable taskmaster who couldn’t differentiate between winning and being a human being, wore thin with the players who were thrilled he finally booted himself upstairs to be GM.

The question is, can his ball-breaking, reign-of-terror approach work in today’s NHL?

Most think it can’t since the players make too much money, wield too much influence and need to be treated with more respect — something Sutter rarely afforded any of the people who worked around him, on or off the ice.

What’s more, can a man who has been away from the NHL completely for a year simply jump back in and be effective?

It’s clearly a desperate act for Lombardi who has already gone through two coaches and is on the hook should his latest hire fail.

He’s seen Sutter turn things around before, and clearly he beleives the confidence a man of Sutter’s ilk is what his band of underachievers need to be one of the elite teams it was pegged as this fall.

One other question that needs to be asked: Is it possible Sutter can change?

Mike Keenan did in Calgary to a certain degree, but it didn’t work with the Flames.

It’s likely we’re about to find out whether it can work in L.A.

All that’s needed is for Sutter to speak up for the first time in a year to make it happen.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Can HBO deliver another compelling season of 24/7?

BRUCE DOWBIGGIN, Globe and Mail, Dec. 14, 2011

It would be hard to exaggerate the impact of HBO’s initial 24/7 documentary series last NHL season on the sport in the United States. The whiff of HBO’s respectability married to the sound track of Bruce Boudreau’s serial profanity raised the profile of the sport south of the border and entertained hockey lifers in Canada, too.

Ratings for the series featuring Pittsburgh and Washington, which culminated in the fateful Sidney Crosby concussed-in-the-rain game, were buoyant by NHL standards. The series won an Emmy for technical excellence. A generation of sports media in the U.S. which disdains hockey took a second look. Some gave it a third look.

Even the cognoscenti in Canada were impressed by the access and insight they gained on players such as Max Talbot or Alex Ovechkin and Penguins coach Dan Bylsma.

So what do you do for an encore when the Rangers/Flyers dressing-room confidential debuts tonight? The 12-minute preview isn’t especially helpful in priming the pump. While the producers do their best to make the Rangers/Flyers rivalry seem like Pacquiao/Mayweather, the quotes from players and coaches sound more like Brady Bunch versus The Waltons on Family Feud.

Rangers coach John Tortorella does allow that he hates having the cameras around, and various players growl that they loath the other guys. But if you want Usual Suspects to reserve the next four Wednesday nights (okay PVR them and watch ‘em later) you have to deliver a little more than boilerplate WWE hype. Perhaps the producers didn’t want to give away the best nuggets so far.

What is notable is that the producers are not emphasizing the skill in the sport. The version of hockey in the slick edits and great cameras work is 90 per cent crash and 10 per cent dash. Most NHL nights this season contain one, maybe two fights in all the games. But the promo makes the uninitiated believe that Rocky V is about to happen 10 times a period. That’s an interesting editorial choice at a time when the league’s stars are being concussed at a furious rate and a stick-tap on the gloves draws a penalty.

There were some quick cuts in the promo of the rain falling last year in Pittsburgh, causing a one-day delay and a generally unplayable surface. Will the risks of playing outdoors be raised in the documentaries? Will Crosby's concussion get air time?

The other factor emerging is the NHL's continued adoption of the NBA/MLB broadcast strategy of “pay for 30 teams and use only eight”. This is a major-market initiative. Canadian teams do not exist for U.S. market considerations. You are not going to see a Columbus/St. Louis Game of the Week, and you’re not going to see 24/7 spend a month chronicling the inner workings of the Minnesota Wild (best in the West so far) and Carolina Hurricanes.

The league is happy enough to have these teams function (in the words of NBA owner Dan Gilbert) as the Washington Generals, but getting HBO or NBC on board? Not going to happen. The league has been lucky to have one of the elite eight U.S. markets in the Stanley Cup Finals since 2004’s Calgary/Tampa tussle, accounting for boffo ratings and media attention. But if the Wild somehow emerge to challenge the Buffalo Sabres in the Final, expect Bob Costas to get laryngitis.

So enjoy tonight. Maybe there will be gems. Maybe there won’t. Just remember the whole thing bothers Tortorella no end, and that’ll be worth the time invested in 24/7.

What Rivalry: Good on Prime Time Sports’ Bob McCown who’s been having fun this week with the Appalachian wedding of Bell and Rogers buying into Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment. While co-host Damien Cox pursues a “nothing to see here” insouciance about editorial complications from the rivals merging interests at MLSE, McCown has been making light of the divided loyalties produced by the two companies owning all the Toronto pro sports franchises (except the Argonauts).

Monday McCown mused about how the sluggos in the broadcast trenches are supposed to resume their supposed bitter competition after watching their bosses hug it out last Friday. Tuesday he was asking if his paycheque would now be “Thirty-seven and half cents from Rogers, Thirty-seven and half cents from Bell and twenty five cents from Larry Tanenbaum”. And so on.

Cox, who seems annoyed at the entire line of inquiry, wondered what’s the fuss about when the companies united for the two weeks of the 2010 Olympics? McCown rebutted that was a one-off for two weeks. This is, like, FOREVER. McCown has tribal immunity at Sportsnet, of course. Still it’s refreshing that not everyone is ignoring the elephant in journalism’s closet.

Then Again: Of course, McCown followed that by joking that the name of Eric Lamaze’s deceased horse was “Giddyup” during a discussion of Lou Marsh Award balloting. Cox thought the Olympic gold-medal winning horse might be named “Hickory”. Sigh. Hickstead was the name.

Penn State Of Mind: You might think that the Penn State sex scandal is a made-in-America scandal. But Canadian networks are tying the Jerry Sandusky criminal case to events in Canada during the infamous Graham James case. CBC News Network highlighted the testimony of Sheldon Kennedy – one of James’s victims – Tuesday throughout its news day. CTV News Network was on the case as well. Good hustle.

Tebow TV: Hey, have you heard, this Tim Tebow kid in Denver might be worth watching? At least, that’s what we hear from ESPN. Twenty-four hours a flippin’ day. The best part of the Tebow phenomenon is how he makes traditional NFL personnel guys on TV who’ve predicted his demise look simply apoplectic when he does everything wrong and still wins. “He can’t play. He can’t throw,” one of them ranted in August. And you know who you are, Boomer Esiason.

Marvelous Marv: Another reason why we hope Marv Albert never retires. The veteran announcer was doing the Houston/Cincinnati NFL game Sunday when it was noted that the parents of Texans’ QB T.J. Yates had perhaps not received field-level seats for the game from the Bengals’ box office. We especially like Marv’s line about security guards hassling John and Carol Yates for moving down seven rows into the sunlight.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Junior hockey fever grips downtown Calgary

Meghan Potkins, Calgary Herald, December 14, 2011

Hockey fans getting excited before the world junior hockey champion-ship invaded the downtown Tuesday.

Businesses and charities sought to drum up excitement among downtown lunchers for the high-calibre hockey tournament that will see the gold medal game take place at the Saddledome on Jan. 5.

KidSport Calgary volunteers were at Bankers Hall encouraging Calgarians to "paint the town in Canadian flags" in support of Team Canada.

The group is selling vehicle-mounted flags with proceeds going to thousands of lowincome kids in Calgary who need financial assistance to participate in sports.

KidSport manager Mark Kosak hopes international fans in town to watch the juniors are over-whelmed by Canada's show of patriotism and enthusiasm for the sport.

"This is a sports town," said Kosak.

"The world juniors grip this country and here it is in our own backyard."

Kosak is hoping to take advantage of the city's excitement for the tournament to bring attention to kids who face barriers to participating in sports like hockey, soccer and swimming.

"There's a lot of support here, not just for the pro sports, but for amateur sports, and I think people understand that it's important for every kid to have the chance to play sports."

Also downtown Tuesday morning were two hockey fans who had run the equivalent of nearly a marathon per day for the last eight days in the name of sport.

Jogging down Stephen Avenue were two Sport Chek employees, fresh from a 300-kilometre journey from Edmonton to Calgary.

Pam Harman, 22, and Davin Swift, 25, ran in bone-chilling conditions to drum up support for the world juniors and will be rewarded by their employer with tickets to the gold medal game.

"(I love) the passion and the energy that the young guys have," said Swift, of Canada's junior players.

"And just seeing the amount of emotion that comes out of those young players makes for great hockey."

The world juniors tournament kicks off with Canada vs. Finland on Boxing Day in Edmonton.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Flames buzzing about Darryl Sutter’s link to L.A.
“(Coaching) is where Darryl’s niche is,” says brother Brent

By SCOTT CRUICKSHANK, Calgary Herald December 14, 2011

Craig Conroy remembers it very clearly.

He remembers sitting in the dressing room — it’s the first intermission of a game against the San Jose Sharks — and watching as Steve Montador gets absolutely roasted by the new boss.

He remembers standing up, interrupting the tirade, blasting the blaster.

He remembers not getting another shift that night.

“I probably should have just shut up, but I didn’t,” Conroy, chuckling, is saying during Tuesday’s morning skate at the Bridgestone Arena. “You know when you get fed up with stuff? Then I’m thinking, I’m not going to play at all. How stupid am I?”

But next game out?

He gets a tonne of ice time.

This is Conroy’s point — that, yes, Darryl Sutter’s whip cracks louder than most, but it never turns into a grudge.

“From that moment on, I knew that anything Darryl did wasn’t personal,” says Conroy, now a member of the Flames’ braintrust. “This is the way he coaches. As soon as players find out that it’s not personal when he’s coming at you . . . it’s just about hockey, winning. He’s a great coach. One of the best I’ve had.”

Rumours of Sutter’s imminent hiring by the Los Angeles Kings had the rink buzzing Tuesday.

Could it be true?

Might the Kings, freshly shed of Terry Murray, hire Sutter?

Makes sense. After all, Los Angeles general manager Dean Lombardi and Sutter go back to their days in San Jose.

And the thoughts of many observers is that Sutter, while not a great general manager (enough said), is, in fact, a very good coach.

With the Flames, Sutter worked the bench for 210 games, going 107-73-30. If his three years in Chicago and six in San Jose are included, his record is 409-320-131.

“To me, (coaching) is where Darryl’s niche is,” said Flames coach Brent Sutter, the younger brother. “I believe it’s something Darryl’s always wanted to continue to do. When he was coaching, he was a good coach.”

Which is why the Flames are perhaps not entirely thrilled by the development.

Sure, they gave the Kings permission to approach Sutter. But what happens if, in the snug Western Conference, the Jolly Rancher gets the Kings rolling?

“I think, if he gets the job, he’s going to do well, just like Ken Hitchcock is doing (in St. Louis),” says Conroy. “You know how Darryl is — he gets a lot out of guys. The team’s going to do well with Darryl . . . they’d have success. It’s too bad they’re in the west.

“If it does happen, there’ll be some intense games between the Flames and Los Angeles.”

All four dates remain — Jan. 14 and March 28 at the Scotiabank Saddledome; Jan. 19 and Feb. 18 at the Staples Center.

“It’s hard to say you wish him the best because I imagine they’ll be fighting us . . . there’s only so many (playoff) spots,” says Jarome Iginla. “He’s a very intense guy, but he’s also a very smart hockey guy. As a coach, he’s demanding — probably runs in the family.

“When it was going bad, everybody — literally, everybody — took the brunt of it at some point. But every day wasn’t a whip. Certainly there are days when he may not love you, or vice versa . . . but I’ve only got good things to say about him as a coach.”

Hired by the Flames on Dec. 28, 2002 — yes, the same date as last season’s dismissal — Sutter coached three seasons: mopping up after Greg Gilbert was canned; taking the team to its first playoff berth in seven years (and to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final) in 2003-04; capturing the Northwest Division in 2005-06, the first post-lockout season.

Conroy says it is Sutter’s in-game touch that makes him such a shrewd bench-boss.

“Darryl had a knack for putting guys out and getting something big to happen,” he says. “Ville Nieminen. Or Chris Clark. It’s easy to put Jarome out, but it’s the other guys. Stephane Yelle. We had success with maybe not the best teams, but he got as much as he could out of every single guy.”

The day he arrived in Calgary, Sutter, after being introduced to the players in the dressing room, politely asked the team’s brass to leave so he could address the players.

“He wanted to be with just his team,” recalls Conroy. “He just kind of laid it out, ‘This is what it’s going to be like, where we’re going to go, how we’re going to do it.’ It was a very short meeting. And away we went. Darryl’s good. He’s quick.

“He can push the right buttons at the right time. You knew what your role was. If you did it? Great. If you didn’t? You heard about it.”

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Domi's son charts own path

Darren Yourk, Globe and Mail, Dec. 14, 2011

Max Domi believes the day will come when the first question reporters ask won’t be about life as the son of a famous NHLer.

Yes, he’s Tie’s boy, blessed with the same fire hydrant build and mischievous grin, but he’s a different type of player intent on carving his own path to the pros. While his father forged a long career on snarl and knuckles, soft hands and offensive flare will define Max’s hockey future.

“I’ve lived with it my entire life,” Domi said when yet another reporter arrived here to ask the 16-year-old London Knights centre about playing junior hockey with the famous last name across the back of his sweater.

“I don’t really focus on any of the negative stuff that comes with having an ex-NHLer for a dad. He played 18 years in the NHL, so whenever I have a question my dad is right there for me. I see it as a positive, not a negative.”

Domi is off to an impressive start in his first Ontario Hockey League season, sitting second in rookie scoring with 31 points in 31 games. He’s been chosen to play for Team Ontario at the 2012 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge in Windsor, Ont., this month, and the Knights are the top-ranked junior team in the country.

“Our team is doing really well and it’s a great group of guys,” Domi said. “I just try to work hard and make my teammates around me better. You ask any hockey player about the best times in their life and they’ll tell you it was playing junior, so I’m trying to make the most of it.”

Although he spent most of his minor midget season checking out National Collegiate Athletic Association programs (he says he would have studied business), Domi ultimately chose the OHL and ended up enrolled at the Hunter Bros. School of Junior Hockey in London. Former NHLers Mark and Dale Hunter (who recently left to coach the Washington Capitals) have owned and operated the Knights since 2000, graduating talent such as Patrick Kane, Sam Gagner, Rick Nash and Corey Perry to the NHL.

“It’s a first-class organization,” Domi said. “It’s pretty special for a young guy like myself to come in here and have the support and resources of the Knights to help me. It has made the jump to junior a lot easier.”

Domi also has a sounding board in Knights assistant coach Dylan Hunter, who knows all about the burden of living up to a famous hockey surname. Hunter was a prolific scorer for the Knights when his dad Dale (the only NHL player to rack up more than 1,500 points and 3,000 penalty minutes) was behind the bench.

“I told Max: You have your identity and your dad had his,” Hunter said. “Just because it’s the same name on the back of the jersey doesn’t mean you’re the same player.

“We’ve talked about it [the pressure] a little bit, mostly about the guys chirping you on the ice. It gets old after a while. We laugh about it because it doesn’t really affect you, but for some reason guys think it does. Max is a good kid, he doesn’t go over the edge at all.”

They’ve also compared notes on unique childhoods spent in NHL arenas surrounded by some of the biggest names in the game. Hunter lists shooting on former Vézina Trophy winner Olaf Kolzig after Capitals practice as his most cherished memory, while Domi points to days off from school spent on the ice at Air Canada Centre in Toronto.

“I’d take a bucket of pucks and dump them at centre, then skate around for hours,” Domi said. “I remember looking up and imagining those seats were full of people. Now that I’m in the OHL, I feel a step closer to making it happen.”

Domi is eligible for the 2013 NHL entry draft, and with the rule changes that have cut down on obstruction and put emphasis on speed, his smaller size (he’s very generously listed at 5 foot 10 and 184 pounds in the Knights program) isn’t expected to be an issue.

If it all pans out, Tie Domi might even one day be better known as the father of NHL star Max Domi.

“Me and my dad joke about that a lot,” Domi said with a laugh. “He gets me going and I give it right back to him. It’s definitely what I’m trying to do here.”

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Are we sending our best off ice too?

RYAN PYETTE, QMI Agency, Dec 14 2011

LONDON, ONT. – The teens selected to represent Canada at the coming world junior hockey tournament are endlessly evaluated, poked and prodded and placed under enormous national pressure.

It's time the men above them took some heat too.

Nobody asked Hockey Canada president Bob Nicholson, head scout Kevin Prendergast or coach Don Hay to jump through the kinds of hoops the kids do every year to be involved with this team.

But maybe, somebody should.

If the Canadians go a third straight year without winning the tournament that only this country cares about, then Nicholson better have some good answers for the processes under which his team operates.

And please spare us the wrinkle he lobbied for earlier this year, that the NHL draft age should be raised, which would, in effect, virtually guarantee Canada landing a half-dozen or so of its elite pro players for this post-holiday puck circus.

That's like a South African billionaire griping his mine's in trouble because six of his biggest diamonds have gone missing.

There's still more than enough talent in this country, an embarrassment of first-round NHL riches, and the bottom line is the tournament deck is stacked in Canada's favour by being held here every other year.

It all comes down to picking the right players and putting the right men behind the bench.

Other top countries aren't fooling around.

The Russians went right back to Valeri Bragin, who oversaw the stunning gold medal in Buffalo. The United States recycled Dean Blais, whose team beat Canada in overtime in Saskatoon two years ago.

Hay gets the call for Canada. He obviously has a fine track record, winning a gold medal a decade-and-a-half ago and a Memorial Cup five years ago at home in Vancouver.

Best of all under Nicholson's structure, he applied for the job.

But then you have two-time defending Canadian Hockey League coach of the year Gerard Gallant in Saint John saying he didn't apply for the job this year and it's not a big goal for him.

Here's the hottest coach leading the team with the most talent on the planet and he just won the Memorial Cup. Shouldn't Nicholson be practically stalking him to help the national juniors?

You never see Quebec Remparts boss Patrick Roy, who has convinced young and talented top scorer Mikhail Grigorenko to buy into back-checking hard, on the Canadian bench. Or, before he went to the NHL last month, London Knights coach Dale Hunter, the OHL's all-time leader in winning percentage who, at times, humourously outcoached rivals that would go on to eagerly represent Canada internationally.

Nicholson has Prendergast comb North America for the top talent. Shouldn't someone also be scouting the coaches and trying to determine the hot hand in the land?

Especially after how they lost in Buffalo, with a coaching staff that had watched Russia win two playoff games in desperate rallies, yet didn't make a goalie change or even call a timeout until it was too late, while everyone in the rink could feel the tide turning in the third period.

Hockey Canada likes to reward men who give up parts of their busy schedules to help the program in some form. If you spend time in the system and go somewhere with the under-18 team, there's a better-than-average chance you'll one day wind up on the world junior bench.

But the puck-following public doesn't care about any of that.

They want the guy who can harness these gifted horses, get them playing the most successful system and put the right kids on the ice in the biggest moments. No one will question anything if Canada wins gold.

But these are certainly the highest stakes for Hockey Canada in some time. The tournament is right in their own backyard. The next two will be in Russia and Sweden.

And if they don't win now with everything in their favour, that should certainly be the ignition for Hockey Canada to start looking at making some necessary, and overdue, changes.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Danes face hockey, Canadian-style

By GERRY MODDEJONGE, QMI Agency, Dec 14 2011

EDMONTON – Before the Denmark national junior hockey team takes on the best in the world later this month, they will warm up against the best the Canada West Conference has to offer.

The U of A Golden Bears will face the U20 squad in back-to-back exhibition games Thursday and Friday at Clare Drake Arena.

Tied atop their conference with the University of Saskatchewan Huskies at 24 points apiece, the older, stronger Bears squad will give Denmark an introduction to hockey, North American style.

All but two — Oshawa Generals forward Nicklas Jensen and Anders Schulz, of the USHL’s Cedar Rapids RoughRiders — play in Europe.

And Vancouver Canucks property Jensen, who was taken 29th overall this year, is the lone NHL-drafted player on the roster.

“We don’t have five or six or seven other Nicklas Jensens, but we have other good hockey players,” said second-year head coach Todd Bjorkstrand. “But it’s going to be a team thing, for us to have success in the tournament, for sure.”

In just their second appearance at the top level of international U20 competition, Denmark is still looking for its first win in the tournament after finishing 0-7 to end up dead last in their first appearance in 2008.

“The expectations are that obviously we want to stay up, that’s the No. 1 goal,” said Bjorkstrand. “And then, just compete in every game. Put a good effort on the ice.”

It’s a case of baby steps for Bjorkstrand, who is from Minnesota and played four years at the University of Maine. After five years in the minors, he found himself playing in Denmark, where he met his wife and spent the past 21 years.

In that time, he has seen hockey develop into a premier program, with more and more players getting drafted to the NHL in recent years.

“We still have a long way to go, but for a small country with not very many hockey players — there are 4,500 registered players — they’ve done (a lot),” Bjorkstrand said.

But the goal isn’t always to send Denmark’s high-end talent to North America to have a shot at the pros.

“In Nicklas’s situation, for sure, he needs to go over and play junior hockey in Canada,” the coach said. “But it depends on the individual and his situation.”

Bjorkstrand has two sons on Denmark’s preliminary roster, 19-year-old Patrick and 16-year-old Oliver who are both forwards on the Blue Fox in Herning, Denmark.

“I’m from Minnesota, so I’m a hockey player,” said Bjorkstrand, whose sons are born and raised in Denmark. “They’ve been around it their whole lives. They liked it and they’ve been playing it.”

The thought has crossed his mind to get them playing in the U.S.

“I think about it all the time,” he said. “I think they’d like to, the rest is kind of up to them.”

Until then, the Bjorkstrand boys and the rest of their countrymen will have a chance to see what it’s like playing against some experienced CIS players Thursday and Friday, most of whom have played out their junior careers and are focusing on education while playing with the Bears.

It’s an opportunity the coach isn’t going to pass up as the world juniors loom near.

“Look at different players in different situations. Look at everyone,” he said. “That’s what these games are for.”

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Flames set to attack Torpedo

By RANDY SPORTAK, QMI Agency, Dec 14 2011

TAMPA – When a system is referred to as the Torpedo, it conjures up images of an attack.

However, that title sure makes the 1-3-1 ‘forechecking’ gameplan often used by the Tampa Bay Lightning a misnomer.

The Calgary Flames will get their chance Thursday to face the host Lightning and their system (5:30 p.m., Sportsnet Flames), which received all kinds of attention a few weeks ago when the Philadelphia Flyers responded by not moving the puck out of their defensive zone to the point play was called because absolutely nothing was happening.

“We played them last year when they did it, and to be honest, I didn’t think it as anything revolutionary,” said Flames centre Brendan Morrison, recalling the 4-2 win by the veteran forward and the host club at the Saddledome. “It works for them — they’ve been successful — but it’s not a situation where you step back and scratch your head saying, ‘Oh my God, how do we break this down?’

“We actually fared pretty well against it last year. The key is you’ve got to keep moving.”

The Lightning aren’t the only NHL club to incorporate the 1-3-1 gameplan — which is designed to clog the neutral zone when the other team has possession of the puck — but somehow Tampa Bay’s squad has become synonymous with it.

It’s much like how the New Jersey Devils and the Minnesota Wild were universally panned in years past for utilizing the left-wing lock.

The Flames are going into their clash with the belief they don’t want to spend too much time worrying about what the Lightning plan to do, preferring to concentrate on what they must do to be most effective.

“We’re going to make a few adjustments for their system, as we do on a daily basis preparing for another team, but it’s going to come down to what we do on the ice and how we execute,” said Flames left winger Alex Tanguay. “We’re capable of playing good games, and they’ve been struggling a little bit lately, so for us, we have to make sure we go out there and get some points.”

To say the Lightning are struggling lately is an understatement.

Heading into the latest rematch of the 2004 Stanley Cup final, the Lightning have just one win in eight games, and that was a come-from-behind shootout victory over the New York Rangers in a tilt which became known more the shotgun celebration by Rangers forward Artem Anisimov after a goal.

The Lightning have been outscored 31-16 in their swoon, and — if matters weren’t bad enough — they are currently without star player Martin St. Louis due to injury.

Still, the Lightning boast enough talent with the likes of fellow forward talents Steven Stamkos and Vincent Lecavalier to cobble together wins.

“I know there’s been a lot of talk about (the 1-3-1), but you can’t get caught up in it. You’ve got to play your game. You’ve got to play like you can play,” said Flames head coach Brent Sutter. “There’s been teams that had success against it, too. You’ve seen it enough and know how to adjust and adapt to it. We’ll make those adjustments, making sure we’re doing what we need to against it.”

Sutter and the rest of his coaching staff tuned into the Bolts’ last game — a 5-4 Monday loss to the New Jersey Devils — in which the Devils controlled more than the final score indicated.

“They got pucks in transition quickly and didn’t allow (the Lightning) to get in that (Torpedo) situation. There’s way to defend against it and ways to beat it,” Sutter said.

Coming off a disappointing 2-1 loss Tuesday night to the Nashville Predators, the Flames should have reason to instil their gameplan on the hosts.

Plus they know they blew a chance to pull a little bit closer to being in the Western Conference’s top eight with that loss in Music City, USA.

“We know where we stand. We’ve been battling extremely hard to get back in the thick of things, and here we are,” Tanguay said. “Let’s go out and try to play a solid game in Tampa and (Friday night) in Florida.

“If we go four of out six (of the remaining points available on this road trip), we’ll be close to a playoff spot.”

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

THN.com Top 10: Underachieving players

Adam Proteau, The Hockey News, 2011-12-14

The NHL season is nearly 40 percent complete – more than enough time to establish which players are flat-out underachieving. Who are the league’s biggest underachievers so far? That’s the focus of the THN.com Top 10 this week:

10. Paul Stastny, Avalanche

Yes, Stastny is on pace to finish this season with 22 goals, the same total he had last year. But the 25-year-old also is on track for just 19 assists –16 fewer than he had last season, and 40 fewer than he amassed in 2009-10.

9. Kyle Okposo, Islanders

He’s still just 23 and is coming off an injury-plagued season, but two years ago, Okposo had 19 goals and 52 points in 82 games – and this year, with four goals and 10 points in 25 games, he’s on pace for just 12 goals and 30 points.

8. Ilya Bryzgalov, Flyers

Bryzgalov hit the contractual jackpot when he signed a nine-year, $51-million deal with Philly, but for the first two months of the season, he was abysmal – at one point, his save percentage was .870 – and the team still needs more from him if the Flyers are to stay at the top of the tough Atlantic Division.

7. Ilya Kovalchuk, Devils

It’s hard to believe Kovalchuk is a two-time 50-goal scorer at the NHL level, but with each passing year of declining production, the 28-year-old is making it easier to believe. He’s on pace for 27 goals this year, down from 31 last season, and down from 41 in 2009-10. And he’s a team-worst minus-10.

6. Eric Staal, Hurricanes

It’s bad enough Staal is headed for a 17-goal, 50-point season – his worst since his rookie numbers of 11 goals and 31 points – but his minus-18 mark is the worst in the entire NHL. At least Cam Ward has the excuse of a subpar defense.

5. Ville Leino, Sabres

Leino has been under pressure since the second his signature appeared at the bottom of a six-year, $27-million contract with Buffalo and has crumbled under the weight of it, amassing just three goals, 10 points and a minus-7 rating.

4. Drew Doughty, Kings

The latest in a long line of players who’ve followed up a contractual stalemate with a tough start to the season, Doughty is on course to finish the year with 24 points – three fewer than he had his rookie season. In the first season of an eight-year, $56-million deal, that’s beyond unacceptable.

3. Alex Ovechkin, Capitals

What hasn’t been said about the fall from grace of one of the league’s marquee talents? The problem with Ovechkin’s severe drop-off in play clearly wasn’t about ex-Caps coach Bruce Boudreau: in the seven games since new coach Dale Hunter came aboard, Ovechkin has one goal, four points and is a minus-three.

2. Scott Gomez, Canadiens

By now, it’s almost unfair to keep harping on Gomez and his diminishing skill set. Almost. When you have a cap hit of $7.4 million for this and the next two years, and when you have just four assists to show for it this season, the fairness spectrum isn’t tilted in your favor. Probably the league’s leading candidate for an amnesty buyout if that is part of the NHL’s next labor agreement.

1. Alex Semin, Capitals

Semin is earning $6.7 million this year. In 26 games, he has as many goals (five) as Dennis Wideman and John Carlson and fewer goals than teammates Brooks Laich, Jason Chimera and Troy Brouwer. Even as a potentially appealing expiring contract, he is attracting virtually zero trade interest from other teams. I’d call him a dog, but the sun shines even on every dog’s behind sooner or later, and Semin has been a remarkable shade-finder this year.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Colby the clown: Clarke MacArthur says nobody is safe from Armstrong's barbs

Mike Brophy, Sportsnet.ca, December 14, 2011

Every class needs one – a clown, that is.

And so, too, does every hockey team; somebody who can lighten the mood in the dressing room during tough times and who routinely puts a smile on the faces of his teammates.

In the case of the Toronto Maple Leafs, the class clown is none other than Colby Armstrong. The 29-year-old, who is in his seventh NHL season, gets his jokes off quicker than a Phil Kessel snap shot. Over the course of a long and stressful hockey season, that is important to team bonding.

The problem is, since Armstrong signed as an unrestricted free agent with the Maple Leafs two years ago, he has spent a great deal of time injured. And when players are hurt and not playing, they rarely interact with their teammates. Last season, a variety of injuries limited Armstrong to only 50 games and already this year the 6-foot-2, 195-pound right winger has missed 23 games with a high ankle sprain. The injury occurred Oct. 19 in a game against the Winnipeg Jets and didn't return until Dec. 9.

On Wednesday, Armstrong limped off the ice at practice, but he is expected to play against the Sabres Friday night in Buffalo.

In the two games he has played since returning, Armstrong's playing time has been limited to an average of 11 minutes per game; down five minutes from the 16:07 he averaged last season. The Leafs are clearly breaking him in slowly. He has one assist, but it is not the points that make Armstrong such a valuable member of any team he has played on. It's his dogged determination on the ice and his witty charm off it.

"He can keep the dressing room lose," said winger Clarke MacArthur. "He's one of those guys who can knock the edge of jitters some guys have. He goes out and plays his steady game every night. There's a lot to learn from him."

MacArthur said nobody is safe from Armstrong's barbs.

"He works the room pretty good," MacArthur said. "He and Dion (Phaneuf) go at it pretty good sometimes. It's fun. It loosens things up. It can be a stressful environment in the dressing room at times so it's good to have somebody to take the edge off a little. You always miss a guy like that when he's hurt. Not just his carp off the ice, but his intensity and determination on the ice. His on-ice play is what is really missed. He's a steady guy that can always be counted on."

"He's an easy going, loose, fun person who's always chirping the guys," added defenceman Luke Schenn. "He lightens things up around the room, definitely at the best of times, but at the worst of times, too. You can't replace a guy like that in the dressing room. He's such a likeable guy that everybody misses him when he's hurt."

Following Tuesday's 2-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes, Armstrong said he felt pretty good considering the length of time he was out. Still, Armstrong added there really is no substitution for game action when it comes to recovering conditioning and timing.

"You can bag skate, like I was doing, all you want, but until you get in there and start battling defencemen, doing that when you're a little tired with the puck, you don't get the same results," Armstrong said. "I was a little better than I thought I'd be right off the bat; I thought it would take a little while to get where I'm at."

When goalie James Reimer missed six weeks with a concussion, or whatever the Leafs want to call it, he said there was nothing he could do about the situation so he didn't worry about it. Armstrong said he is not quite as patient. He could not relax.

"I'm a head case; I have seven different kinds of doctors," Armstrong joked. "It is so tough sitting out. You are really separated from the team. I really enjoy being around the guys and being in the room, so there's nothing worse than when you are off to the side and not involved. You're on a totally different schedule. I couldn't wait to play again after my first game back. I am being given an opportunity to play with some pretty good players right now so I want to make the most of that."

As happy as Armstrong is to be playing again, his teammates are equally pleased that he back on the scene.

"He played the first few games for us and I don't think you realize how much he brings to the room until he's gone," added defenceman John-Michael Liles. "He's got that veteran presence. He's a vocal guy and now that he's back you realize how much you have missed him. He's quick-witted and he's got some pretty good jokes. He keeps guys smiling, but at the same time brings a lot of energy to the room and when you do that I think it translates into good play on the ice."

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Overlooked by NHL scouts, Pearson earns spot on Team Canada
OHL scoring leader not passed over this time

By Vicki Hall, Postmedia News, December 14, 2011

CALGARY — Tanner Pearson had no designs last summer on representing Canada in the 2012 IIHF world junior hockey championship.

Especially after all 30 teams passed him over for the second year running in the NHL entry draft.

“Ì was actually working that day,” he said Wednesday afternoon, twirling around the ice at the WinSport Arena in his red Team Canada jersey. “I worked for Pro Hockey Life the last two summers selling retail hockey equipment and stuff like that.

“I had my phone in my pocket. I was checking it every once in a while behind closed doors where no one could see, so I wouldn’t get in trouble.”

In spite of the double-draft snub, Pearson earned an invitation to this week’s selection camp in Calgary by leading the Ontario Hockey League in scoring with 26 goals and 66 points in 30 games.

Upon arrival, the Barrie Colts scoring sensation battled nerves in his first two scrimmages but broke out Tuesday night with a goal and several heavy hits in the third exhibition game against a group of Canadian Interuniversity Sport players.

On Wednesday morning, he awoke to the sound of ringing phones and banging doors in the team hotel. He followed the news of the cuts on the Internet.

Twelve down, one to go. Then a reporter said via Twitter that Pearson was next.

His heart sank, but the phone never rang.

“That kind of frightened me a bit,” he said. “But that knock on the door and the congratulations from the coach was awesome.”

Every year, Canadian junior hockey fanatics draw up their projected rosters at the beginning of selection camp. And every year, big names fail to make the list.

Two years ago, Tyler Seguin received the dreaded phone call. The Boston Bruins proceeded to draft him second overall. Last year, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins failed to make the team. He leads the NHL in rookie scoring with 32 points in 30 games.

This time around, puck-moving defenceman Ryan Murphy, a first-round pick of the Carolina Hurricanes, shocked fans by failing to make the team.

But every year, some players slip under the radar and earn a roster spot. Pearson is one. So too are centre Boone Jenner, of the Generals, centre Michael Bournival, of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s Shawinigan Cataractes and goalie Scott Wedgewood, of the OHL’s Plymouth Whalers.

“I went to bed at about 2:30, finally,” Wedgewood said. “I think I used about seven different pillows, none of them were comfy enough.

“I woke up at 5:59, just as the clock turned to six and the phone calls started. It was kind of nerve wracking.”

Bournival, whose rights belong to the Colorado Avalanche, is solid on faceoffs and dependable on the penalty kill. Jenner, a Columbus Blue Jackets prospect, can play any of the three forward positions and plays with a physical edge.

Now the team is named, armchair general managers across the country will no doubt second guess those who made it and those who didn’t.

“You have no idea how tough it is,” said head scout Kevin Prendergast. “We had a lot of battles.

“A lot of times, the best player doesn’t make it. It’s a chemistry fit.”

For his part, Pearson is elated to be wearing Team Canada attire instead of selling it this Christmas.

“If someone were to have told me at the beginning of the year that I would be at the world junior camp — or make the team the team — I probably would have just shook my head and laughed,” he said. “But to don this sweater is an honour.”

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Watch: Best shinny rink ever?

Luke Fox, Sportsnet.ca, December 15, 2011

Replay of the Day: Now I know what I want for Christmas. Although the NHL move of Wednesday night belongs to Patrick Kane (see related link), this footage of a low-stakes scrimmage in Windy Arm, Yukon, is the stuff postcards and dreams and goosebumps and life-long hockey addicts are made of.

We’ll have to echo some of the YouTube comments on this one: “Now I understand ‘O Canada’ ”…. “That looks like paradise to me.”… “I want to live there!”

Yep.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Rangers vs. Flyers: The profanities, fears and joys are riveting

Bruce Dowbiggin, Globe and Mail, Dec. 15, 2011

Thinking the second season of HBO’s 24/7 documentary series might not match its predecessor? Think again. Hey, they have Ilya Bryzgalov.

The four-part documentary series following the New York Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers is as up-to-date as Flyer Claude Giroux’s concussion last Saturday, or Artem Anisimov’s sniper routine. It’s as perceptive as Ryan Callahan’s straight-talking, 95-year-old granny.

HBO’s camera work and editing (and at times the budget) make network TV hockey telecasts look like silent films by comparison. And did we say they have Ilya Bryzgalov?

The storytelling techniques remain from Year 1 – getting to know the coaches’ profanity penchants, the players’ apprehensions and joys, the enormous risks of injury endured by the players.

TV likes basic concepts, and 24/7 has a cupboard full of them. Bryzgalov, the $54-million (all currency U.S.) free-agent Flyer goalie, is the star as he contemplates the cosmos (“the solar system is so humongous big”) and explains the price of hunting tigers in China.

Sean Avery is … Sean Avery. Enigmatic.

Rangers coach John Tortorella simmers like Michael Corleone.

Even though the camera presence tilts reality, it doesn’t destroy. HBO’s cameras catch Giroux, the breakout player of the year in the NHL, getting clipped in the back of his head by the knee of teammate Wayne Simmonds. Under the stands, Giroux undergoes the concussion protocol, then we see the exasperation on coach Peter Laviolette’s face as Giroux tells him that all is not well. We hear Simmonds explain how his inadvertent blow happened. It amounts to fantastic insight on a Page 1 issue about the sport.

There’s also the sequence showing Ranger Anisimov performing his Call of Duty goal celebration, referee Chris Rooney’s reaction (“to skate from the net all the way to the blueline doing that is not kosher”), the schoolboy giggles of his teammates as they file into the dressing room, and the predictable blast from Tortorella (“we have our work cut out for us because of our own stupidity”). Finally, Anisimov apologizes to the team.

It takes a little luck to be in the right place, and the 24/7 producers had the good fortune to be on hand at just the moment of Giroux’s injury and Anisimov’s brain lock. But it takes hustle to find Callahan’s nonagenarian grandmother vowing to set the referees straight. Or to have former Los Angeles King Simmonds explaining why his former team is changing coaches this week.

Quibbles? Just wonder when the producers might mention former Ranger Derek Boogaard, whose death and autopsy have capsized the NHL the past five months. And yes, Dorothy, there’s plenty of swearing. Ranger Michael Del Zotto crashes into the boards and says, “[Expletive], am I bleeding?”

Like The Sopranos, music is a keystone to the 24/7 plot lines. So the Rangers open to the searing urban chords of The Black Keys’ Lonely Boy, while the free-spending Flyers get Fitz and The Tantrums doing Money Grabber. Later we discover that the Flyers celebrate wins by breaking down to the infectious Knock Knock by Mac Miller. And can we get narrator Liev Schreiber to hand out the Stanley Cup instead of the commissioner, please? Somewhere in heaven John Facenda is jealous.

Next episode: Not to tell HBO its business but if it doesn’t do the Chicago Blackhawks and Vancouver Canucks for next year’s 24/7, it’s insane. Wednesday’s Dave Bolland snipe at the Sedins, followed by the quiet rage of Canucks coach Alain Vigneault saying the Hawks’ forward had a face only a mother could love … it just writes itself. Get these teams to play each other in a fenced-in rink at Cabrini Green in Chi-town. Please.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Pressure nothing new for Don Hay

JAMES CHRISTIE, Globe and Mail, Dec. 15, 2011

Silver is the colour of disappointment in the world championships of junior hockey.

That’s the kind of pressure that sits on the neck of the team’s head coach Don Hay. The national junior squad went to the gold medal game the last two tournaments and came up short – last time yielding five third-period goals to Russia to lose gold.

It’s up to Hay – a four-time Memorial Cup winner, sometime NHL coach in Phoenix and Calgary and head coach of the Vancouver Giants – to call the signals that restore the post-Christmas championship for Canada. To go three junior tournaments without a gold would set off alarm bells in this country.

The task is onerous, but he can handle the demands of the job. Hay is a teacher, a motivator – and he’s won more than 500 junior games. Hay was the national junior coach before, in 1995. That was a year the NHL was in a lockout and all the country’s hockey focus was the juniors and on Hay. He knows the country expects a gold medal out of a team of teenagers. He knows the importance of this tournament in Canada. While the world junior tournament, to be played in Calgary and Edmonton, isn’t a huge seller in most markets in the world, in Canada it’s a crucible.

High expectations aren’t negatives, Hay says. “It means people think you have a chance to win.”

He’s been thinking like a strategist, not a talent evaluator, since he was appointed last May. The last 13 cuts were made from training camp this week as Hay sought out 22 players who would mould together as Canada’s best team . They’re not only goal scorers but those who would play roles and be flexible enough to take unfamiliar positions in the event of injuries. Hay also expects the team to affix the Canadian brand to its game – fast and physical.

The goalie who went in as backup last year, Niagara Falls Ice Dog Mark Visentin, has played his way into a role as Hay’s probable starter. It’s as much character as ability. He showed tremendous maturity in facing questions after last winter’s third-period collapse handed the gold to the Russians.

“I’ve lived the moment. I can’t go back and change it,” Visentin says. He’s not afraid to talk about what happened. It’s part of his history. But he can also point to the fact that the meltdown was an aberration. He was, in fact, the OHL’s best goalie with a 30-9-6 record, a 2,52 goals against average and .917 save percentage.

It’s not just the kids who are expected to perform, but the coach.

“I really feel this is a time for me to step back in,” Hay says. “It’s an honour for me. I’m a better coach now. I’m more experienced. I’ve seen different situations. I realize the importance of the tournament to everyone in Canada.”

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[Author]

Posts